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Up Close With Emm Gryner

April 8, 2011 - 10:51pm

Posted by Li Robbins on Apr- 8-11

She's a songwriter, a sometime actor, and a rock 'n' roller who played in David Bowie's band). And recently, the multitalented Emm Gryner turned her hand to blogging about her experiences as a new mom. But don't worry -- this isn't your typical yummy-mummy bloggery. Emm started her blog, mumhum, because, as she says, "I learned so much about pregnancy and baby's first year and I want to write it down before I forget everything." And she promises: "No ads, no sappy mom stuff, no boring crap." (As evidenced from a recent tweet @emmgryner too: "Dear sleepy infant, what do you mean you don't want to be read TS Eliot The Waste Land at nap time?") In between forthright non-sappy blog posts, Emm's been hard at work at music, with a new recording called Canticle coming out in the fall. Meanwhile, she's Up Close with Drive in a studio performance.

And by the way, if you're not so into reading about pregnancy and parenthood -- no judgments here, just acknowledging different tastes in bloggery! -- you might want to read Em's Journal instead. Her writing there demonstrates the same pith 'n' vinegar as that of her mumhum blog, but the subject matter is mainly restricted to music-related things. After the Juno Awards, for instance, she wrote: "Too Indie for the Junos and too pop for the Polaris, I enjoy just rocking for real people and taking long walks on the beach," which is pretty funny. (Although who knows: she may be proven wrong, award-wise, in the future.) But let's get to one more Emm item before concluding. You probably are wondering, like the rest of us, about her David Bowie experience. Another one of her journal entries addresses that, so here you go: "I admit when I got the job singing with David I only knew a few of his hits from the '80s and thought "Rebel Rebel" was a Stones song. oops! I guess I was always more of a Peter Gabriel girl ( I could name all of his songs!) Bowie is gracious, witty, inspired, inspiring and incredibly, insanely knowledgeable and at that time, he was extremely patient with a 24 year-old. I once asked him what 'total blam blam' was and he answered it as though he was not the legend he is."

Music

Chris Wardman first came to the public eye as the guitar player and songwriter for seminal Canadian new wave band Blue Peter. The band’s hit songs included “Chinese Graffiti”, “Radio Silence” and the hugely popular “Don’t Walk Past”. “Don’t Walk Past” continues to garner airplay on radio and MuchMusic, many years later. Getting a taste for recording while working with British producer Steve Nye (Japan, Bryan Ferry, The Cure) on a Blue Peter album, Wardman went on to a successful producing career of his own. After releasing four discs Blue Peter disbanded and Wardman slid easily into the producer’s chair, working on albums for Chalk Circle, Randy Bachman, Emm Gryner, The Watchmen, Art Bergmann, Rusty, Big Wreck and many others. From 1989 to 1992, he was on the payroll at Capitol EMI Records as staff producer working with bands like Leslie Spit Treeo, David Gogo, The Tragically Hip, 13 Engines, National Velvet and more.

Online

Chris Wardman has been involved in interactive media since the early days of websites and CDROMs. For over 10 years Chris worked at BMG and Universal Music running their official artist sites and corporate web presence. He has built enhanced cds, dvds, tv spots and artist interviews. He has worked on numerous websites for a multitude of artists including the Spinnerette, Thornley, Crash Test Dummies, The Tragically Hip, Jully Black, Hedley, and Jacksoul. He specializes in clean, modern design with a bit of edge. Behind the scenes sites are managed with open source content management systems that allow client friendly updates using web 2.0 technologies and clean code. Current clients include labels, lifestyle management companies, artist management companies and talent management companies.